Back to another portion of this chapter, but part of the chapter that I want to focus on right now is beginning there in verse number 10,
where the Bible reads,
He that believeth on the Son of God hath to witness in himself.
He that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son,
and this is the record that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
Now I want to expose and preach about some false doctrine tonight,
and it's false doctrine that's very prevalent,
and it's something that you run into a lot in the Pentecostal movement.
It's something that's very popular.
There are all kinds of churches that are around that are Pentecostals,
and many times they're non-denominational churches,
but they're actually a Pentecostal church.
They're part of one of these Pentecostal denominations,
and they believe a lot of false doctrine.
I'm going to expose that to you tonight and show you biblically why we are not Pentecostals,
and why we do not believe in those doctrines,
and the first thing I want to show you tonight,
and this may come as a shock to some people,
but I'm going to show you that Pentecostals are not saved according to the Bible,
and I'm going to show you why,
and you say, well, that's awfully judgmental of you.
I'm not trying to be judgmental.
The bottom line is I could go around and pretend that everybody's saved.
I could pretend that Muslims are saved, and that Catholics are saved,
and that Jews are saved, and I could pretend that Hindus are saved,
but that's not really going to do anybody any good.
You see, my goal is to get people saved.
My goal is to preach the Gospel to every creature and win people to Christ,
and if I'm going to be in denial and in delusion thinking that just everybody is saved,
and everybody who says they are Christian is saved,
no, the Bible says broad is the way which leadeth to destruction,
and many there be which go in their act,
because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life,
and few there be that find it.
You know, it's a narrow way today.
There are many people that are saved, yes,
but the majority of people in the United States of America are not saved by far,
and if you go out and talk to people, you'll realize that,
that they're not trusting Christ as Savior,
and I'm going to prove that to you from the Bible before we get into this.
Look at 1 John 5, 10.
The Bible reads,
He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself.
Now, clearly believing on Jesus Christ is what saves us.
The Bible asks the question,
What must I do to be saved?
And they say,
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house.
Those who believe on Jesus Christ are saved.
The Bible says,
He that believeth on him is not condemned,
but he that believeth not is condemned already,
because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
You see, there are two kinds of people in this world.
There are those who are saved,
and there are those who are not saved, okay?
And that distinction is not based on how you live your life,
because all of sin comes from the glory of God.
It's based upon what you believe,
and the Bible here tells us what you have to believe to be saved.
The Bible says,
He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself.
The context there, the witness from a few verses earlier,
is the Holy Spirit.
Those who believe on Jesus Christ are dwelled by the Holy Spirit.
It says,
He that believeth not God hath made him a liar,
because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.
So basically, there are two kinds of people in this world.
There are those who believe on Jesus Christ,
and then there are those who are making God a liar,
because they don't believe the record that God gave his Son.
Look at the next verse.
It says,
And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life,
and this life is in his Son.
So really, there are two kinds of people.
There are those who believe that record right there,
who believe on the Son of God,
and those who are making God a liar.
And there's nothing in between.
You either believe that or you don't.
And notice what the Bible says you have to believe,
that God has given to us eternal,
not that eternal life is earned,
that it's something that we work for,
and that we earn by being good.
No, that God has given to us eternal life.
The Bible says,
For the wages of sin death,
that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
For by grace are ye saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God,
not of works, lest any man should pose.
The Bible says that God has given to us eternal life,
and this life is in his Son.
Notice what did he give us?
Eternal life.
Not temporary life.
Not life until we sin, until we mess up.
No, he gave us eternal life.
And he says in the next verse,
He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
These things have I written unto you
that believe on the name of the Son of God,
that you may know that you have eternal life,
and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God.
So the Bible is clear here that we can know for sure
that we have eternal life.
Now, is half present, past, or future?
Present.
He didn't say you have eternal life.
That would be like you lost it.
He didn't say you will get eternal life,
like, well, when you die, you'll find out,
or that's when it starts.
No, he said you may know that you have eternal life right now.
Now, if I have eternal life, eternal means it never ends.
So if I have eternal life...
Go to John chapter 10, if you would.
If I have eternal life,
okay, then that means I'm never going to die.
Now, if you believe that you can lose your salvation,
basically what you're saying is you don't have eternal life.
You don't believe that God has given us eternal life.
Number one, first of all,
if you believe that you can lose your salvation,
which is what Pentecostals teach,
then you're basically saying, well, you can lose your salvation
so you don't have eternal life.
You have life until you mess up,
or until God takes it away from you, or until you blow it.
No, the Bible says we have eternal life.
It's everlasting life. It never ends.
And secondly, if you believe you can lose your salvation,
basically what you're saying is,
well, I have to do something to be saved.
Because if I don't do it right, I'm going to lose it.
You know, and people will say,
well, you don't have to do any works to get saved.
You just believe on Christ.
But then you've got to do the works to stay saved.
Well, that's the same thing.
You're basically saying you've got to work your way to heaven.
Or you have to stop sinning, or turn over a new leaf,
or quit this, or quit that.
That's not what the Bible says.
Look at John 10-28.
The Bible says that I give unto them eternal life.
And then it tells us what that means.
And they shall never perish.
Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
You see, if you have never-ending life,
you're never going to die.
You're never going to perish.
Look at chapter 11, verse 25.
John 11-25 says this.
Jesus said unto her,
I am the resurrection and the life.
He that believeth in me, though he were dead,
yet shall he live.
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me
shall never die.
That's another way of praising eternal life.
Never die.
Believeth without this.
And so the Bible is clear that being saved is by believing.
It's by faith.
It's not by works.
And once you're saved, you're saved eternally.
And he said if you don't believe the record
that God gave us eternal life, you're not saved.
You're calling out a liar.
You're trusting in your own works to save you.
And our works cannot save us.
Look at Galatians, chapter 5.
And I'm trying to blow through the scriptures on this point,
but I need to lay this important foundation.
Galatians, chapter 5.
And I'm going to get to the rest of the points,
but look at Galatians, chapter 5.
You see, the Bible is clear
that you can't trust faith and works.
You have to put all of your faith in Christ.
The Bible says in chapter 5, verse 1,
Stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made us free,
and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Watch this.
Behold, I Paul say unto you,
that if ye be circumcised,
Christ shall profit you nothing.
Now that's an interesting statement, isn't it?
He says, if ye be circumcised,
Christ shall profit you nothing.
And then look at the next verse.
For I testify again to every man that is circumcised,
that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
Christ has become of no effect unto you,
whosoever of you are justified by the law,
ye are fallen from grace.
For we through the Spirit
wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
For in Jesus Christ,
neither circumcision availeth anything,
nor uncircumcision,
but faith which worketh by love.
Now, he starts out by saying,
well, if you get circumcised,
then Christ shall profit you nothing.
Doesn't sound like you're going to heaven
if Christ profits you nothing,
if Christ is of no effect unto you.
He's saying, basically, you're not saved.
And he said, wait a minute, pastor,
are you saying that everybody who is circumcised
is not saved?
Well, if you look down at verse 6,
he says, for in Jesus Christ,
neither circumcision availeth anything,
nor uncircumcision,
but faith which worketh by love.
He's saying, it doesn't matter
whether or not you're circumcised.
He said, well, I don't get it.
What he's talking about here
in the beginning of chapter 5,
there were people that were coming into
the churches at Galatia,
and you'll find this in Acts 15.
I'm not going to turn there for the sake of time.
But in Acts 15, there were people coming into
the churches at Galatia and saying,
except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses,
you cannot be saved.
So they were adding circumcision to the gospel.
And so Paul is saying,
if you go out and get circumcised,
because he's talking to Gentiles here.
He's saying, if you go out and get circumcised,
because you think that that is something
that you have to do to get to heaven,
you're not saved.
You're not trusting in faith alone.
You're saying it's faith plus circumcision.
And he's saying, if you're trusting in that,
if you're going to go out and get circumcised with that,
then you're not saved.
You're not even trusting Christ.
And he says Christ is of no effect unto you,
because you're trying to be justified by the law,
by the deeds of the law,
by the works of the law.
And the Bible says by the deeds of the law,
there shall no flesh be justified in this sight.
So he's explaining to them that,
you know, circumcision doesn't matter.
And guess what?
If you're a grown man,
you're probably not just going out and getting
circumcised for fun.
They're going out and getting circumcised,
because they think,
well, I have to do this in order to get to heaven,
and these Jews are telling you that.
But the Bible's saying,
look, if that's what you think,
you don't even understand the gospel,
that it's all by faith.
You're not even trusting Christ alone.
And look,
Paul is using the example of circumcision,
but we can fill in the blank with anything here.
And say, you know what,
if you think you have to be circumcised
and believe in Christ,
you're not saved.
If you think you have to believe in Christ
and get baptized,
you're not saved.
If you think you have to believe in Christ
and go to church every Sunday,
that's not salvation.
Salvation is when you trust the finished work
of Jesus Christ on the cross,
when he died and was buried and rose again.
And don't try to add your own works,
whether it be your circumcision,
your following of other of God's laws.
Whichever of God's laws you pick
that you say,
well, I have to follow this law to be saved.
Yeah, God commands us to be baptized.
He commands us to obey his word.
But we don't have to do those works to be saved.
We're saved by grace through faith,
not of ourselves.
It's the gift of God.
We'll just turn to one more for the sake of time,
Romans 10,
and we'll go to the next point here.
Romans chapter 10
is a good verse on this, too.
It says in Romans 10, verse 1,
Brethren, my heart's desire
and prayer to God for Israel
is that they might be saved.
So he's basically saying they're not saved.
I heard somebody say,
well, you should never say that anybody's not saved.
You shouldn't say that this group isn't saved.
Then why is he saying?
He's saying a whole nation isn't saved.
I mean, he's basically saying,
man, Israel needs to get saved.
And look what he says next.
For I bear the record that they have a zeal of God,
but not according to knowledge.
He says,
yeah, they're passionate about what they believe,
and they're excited about their faith,
but he says they have a zeal of God,
but not according to knowledge.
They're not saved.
And he says,
for they being ignorant of God's righteousness,
and what are they trusting in to get them to heaven?
Look at this.
And going about to establish their own righteousness
have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God,
for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth.
And then, of course,
the famous verses,
if you jump down to verse 9,
that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
and shalt believe in thine heart
that God have raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved.
And it's that simple.
You believe in your heart,
you confess with your mouth,
you're saved.
It's not by your own words.
It's not by your own righteousness.
And he said,
the vast majority of the people in Israel,
and in chapter 9 and in chapter 11,
you get the context,
he explains that there are some people in Israel
who are saved.
He explains there is a remnant that believes on Christ,
but that the majority of the nation of Israel,
just as they're not saved today,
was not saved back then,
because they were trusting in their own righteousness
instead of the righteousness which is of God.
So look, it's clear,
you're not saved unless you believe in Jesus Christ
as the only way to heaven,
through faith in him,
not through your own works.
And not through,
well, you know,
I asked him into my heart,
but now I gotta, you know,
keep it right,
or else I'm gonna lose it.
That's not salvation.
That's not eternal life.
That's not everlasting life.
I mentioned hundreds and hundreds of times these words,
everlasting life,
eternal life,
I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee.
He'll tell those that are unsaved,
he'll tell those that are unsaved,
depart from me,
I never knew you,
not I used to know you.
But let's get off that point.
Turn to Acts chapter 2.
Acts chapter 2.
We'll go to where the Pentecostals take their name from,
which is Acts chapter 2,
which is the day of Pentecost.
Acts chapter number 2 in your Bible,
and this is where the Pentecostals take their name,
because this is their favorite chapter in the Bible,
and it's a great chapter in the Bible.
It's an excellent chapter,
but the problem is that they're basically throwing out
the rest of the Bible,
and they only want to just twist this one chapter,
and this is their main chapter,
because it's about the day of Pentecost.
And it says in verse 1,
it says,
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come,
they were all with one accord in one place.
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven
as of a rushing, mighty wind,
and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire,
and it sat upon each of them,
and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,
and began to speak with other tongues
as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Now, as we read this,
it's going to be very clear what's happening here,
what it means when it says that they spoke with other tongues.
But you see, the Pentecostals have this doctrine
called tongue speaking, or speaking in tongues.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
You know, speaking in tongues.
And basically what they do is they talk in a language
that no one around them understands.
And they'll be in church,
and I've been at a service before where they did this,
and it scared the fire out of me,
and I actually just, you know, got up and walked out
because I couldn't even believe it.
But it made me very nervous.
But basically, people in the auditorium will just start
just...
Just talking in gibberish.
And I'll tell you right now,
there are a lot of different people
who practice this so-called tongue speaking,
and, you know, I don't know what all of it is involved.
I mean, I think a lot of them are just
probably just getting emotional,
because a lot of times music is involved,
and they get all worked up into some kind of a frenzy.
I've seen that take place.
But, you know, I'll be honest.
I've been in one service
where I was actually physically their presence,
sitting in a church,
and I didn't realize it was that type of church.
There was a Pentecostal church.
And this started taking place, this so-called tongue speaking.
And I'll tell you right now,
the girl that I saw that was speaking in tongues
just five chairs down from me,
she was not in the driver's seat,
I'll tell you right now.
And I can't speak for every Pentecostal in America,
but the one that I saw sitting next to me,
I thought she was having a seizure.
I'm not making a joke right now.
I was literally ready to call 911,
or, you know,
hey, can we get somebody to help this girl?
Because I literally thought that she was...
Because I've seen...
Who's ever seen somebody have a seizure?
You know, that's what it was like.
I mean, I saw this girl,
and I thought that she was epileptic.
I thought she was having a seizure.
She started rocking back and forth.
You know, all this crazy stuff.
She was not in the driver's seat, okay?
Now, let's see biblically if that resembles...
And maybe you've been exposed to some of this tongue speaking
and people talking in a language,
or they say,
well, you know, I have this prayer language,
and I start praying,
and then I just start saying stuff,
and I don't even know what I'm saying.
Let's see if that jives with what the Bible says.
Look at Acts 2.4.
And by the way, this is the first time
that God really explains to us what's going on
with this speaking with other tongues.
And it's pretty clear what's happening.
Remember, this is the chapter where they take their name from.
This is the event, the day of Pentecost.
Verse 4 says,
And they all began to...
They were all filled with the Holy Ghost
and began to speak with other tongues
as the Spirit gave them utterance.
And there were dwelling at Jerusalem,
Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven.
Now, when this was noised abroad,
the multitude came together and were confounded.
They were what? Confused, confounded.
The multitude came together,
and they're basically confounded by this.
And they say, because that they heard them speak,
every man heard them speak in his own what?
Okay, so what were they confused by?
The fact that they didn't understand
or the fact that they did understand?
That they did, because see,
there were people from every nation under heaven.
The Bible tells us that there were devout men
who had traveled for the day of Pentecost.
They had traveled for this holiday.
They were all there from all different countries,
and they started hearing these disciples,
and every man heard them speak in his own language.
Now, according to chapter 1,
there were 120 of the disciples in those days.
So there are 120 people
that are basically preaching the gospel
to different people from different nations,
and every man is hearing them speak in his own language.
So the first the Bible said
they began to speak with other tongues
as the Spirit gave them to others.
Then it says people were confused because they said,
wow, I'm hearing them speak in my own language.
Look at the next verse, verse 7.
And they were all amazed and marveled,
saying one to another,
Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans?
And how hear we every man in our own what?
Tongue.
So first they said we hear every man in our own language.
Now they're saying we hear every man in our own tongue,
wherein we were born.
Then they began to list the tongues.
Parthians and Medes and Elamites and Guas in Mesopotamia
and in Judea and Cappadocia and Pothos in Asia,
Phrygia, Pamphylia, and Egypt,
and in parts of Libya, about Cyrene,
strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,
Crete and Arabians.
We do hear them speak in our tongues
the wonderful works of God.
So here they said we hear them speak in our own language.
We hear them speak in our own tongues.
And they said here's 16, 17 of the tongues that we heard spoken.
Now does this look like gibberish to you?
Does this look like somebody having a seizure?
Is this somebody talking in a babble that people don't understand?
No, this is people speaking legitimate, bona fide languages,
not a made-up language, not a heavenly language,
not an angelic language.
No, this is somebody speaking Egyptian to an Egyptian.
This is somebody speaking Libyan to a Libyan.
And I understand that those are not modern-day names of languages,
but whatever languages they spoke in those places back then,
that's what they were speaking to them.
They were speaking to the Libyan in his own native language.
They were speaking to the Cyrenian, to the Roman,
in their native tongue wherein they were born.
It has nothing to do with the modern-day Pentecostal movement.
It has nothing to do with what's so-called tongue speaking.
There's nobody here who's just speaking in another language just for granted.
No, they were doing it to give somebody the Gospel.
God performed a miracle here.
Because of the fact that there were all these people gathered from all different nations,
this was a great opportunity for the Gospel to be spread.
Jesus Christ had just risen from the dead,
and it's a perfect opportunity for people from all over the world to hear the Gospel,
and then they could take the Gospel back to their home country.
And these were devout men.
These were people who were religious.
They wanted to do what was right, but they needed to hear the truth.
They needed to hear the Gospel.
And then once they heard it, many of them believed.
And of course we see that later, about 3,000 people are going to get baptized
at the end of this whole thing.
So these people heard the Gospel in their own language.
This has nothing to do with the bogus Pentecostal movement today of tongue speaking.
And when you see this tongue speaking,
the only thing I can compare it to in the Bible is someone being demon possessed.
You know, when you see somebody talking in another voice,
and it's not their own voice, and they're out of control.
The Bible says the spirit of the prophets is subject unto the prophets.
But yeah, when you see someone who's not in the driver's seat,
and I've spoken to people who say,
I was a Nazarene, or I was a, you know, somebody's got,
and they say, I spoke in tongues.
And this is what one of them told me,
a guy that I worked with in the alarm business.
He said, this is what happened.
He said, I just blacked out, and then people told me,
oh, you know, you spoke in tongues.
You did this once I came back to consciousness.
You know, that's not of God.
You don't see that in the Bible.
And you see these strange doctrines and strange manifestations
in the Pentecostal movement.
Now you say, well, how do you know that tongue speaking isn't real?
I'll tell you right now.
The first reason I know that tongue speaking isn't real,
the number one reason, is because everybody I've ever met
who believed in tongue speaking or practiced tongue speaking
also believed you could lose your salvation.
So that right there tells me this is not of God
because it's associated with a false gospel, a false doctrine.
Number two, I know it's not real
because it doesn't line up with scripture
because it has nothing to do with what the Bible's teaching here
where tongues are foreign languages.
When we get to 1 Corinthians 14, tongues are still languages.
They haven't changed.
Have you ever heard someone say, hey, this is his mother tongue?
This just means his native language, his mother tongue.
Have you ever heard this term, lingua franca?
That means the most used and common language in the world
or in that area, the lingua franca.
Lengua, like have you ever been to the grocery store
or in the Hispanic section and you see la lingua?
What's lingua mean?
Tongue.
Right, Spanish for tongue, exactly.
And so we see that this is not true.
But number two, go to Romans chapter four, if you will.
Romans chapter four.
So we see number one, the false doctrine
that you can lose your salvation.
It's false.
Number two, the so-called tongue speaking
and ecstatic speaking is not biblical.
It's false.
Number three, the Pentecostal movement
teaches baptismal regeneration.
They teach that you have to be baptized in order to be saved.
Now, there are all different varieties of Pentecostals.
They don't all believe the same things.
There's Church of God, Church of Christ, Church of God in Christ.
And then there's the United Church of Christ.
And then there's the United Pentecostal Church.
And then there's the Assemblies of God.
There's all different varieties.
And they all believe slightly different things.
But the common denominators that you'll find
are losing your salvation, always, amongst all of them.
And here's the other common denominator
that you'll find, tongue speaking.
That's the common denominator amongst all of them.
Now, baptismal regeneration or believing
that you have to be baptized to be saved,
this isn't all of them.
But I would say it's most of them.
The majority of Pentecostals you're going to run into
believe you have to be baptized to be saved.
Now, the thing that it's so easy to defeat this doctrine
that you have to be baptized to be saved,
first of all, you can just go through the huge litany of verses
that say that all you have to do is just believe,
starting with John 3.16.
For God so loved the world
that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish but have everlasting life.
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life,
but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life,
but the wrath of God abideth on him.
John 5.24.
Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that heareth my word
and believeth on him that sent me
hath everlasting life,
and shall not come into condemnation
but is past from death and the life.
John 6.47.
Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
And we could go on and on of all the different scriptures,
but I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, Romans 1.16.
For it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth,
to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Right there, it's clear that salvation's by believing alone.
So if you have to be baptized to be saved,
then those verses are all not true.
Yeah.
Because if all these literally hundreds,
and I'm not reciting them all to you,
we could go through a hundred verses if you want,
that say that believing in Christ is going to save you.
If that's not enough,
then those verses aren't true.
When the Bible says that
if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus
and shalt believe in thy heart that God was raised unto them,
thou shalt be saved.
Oh, but if you didn't get baptized,
sorry, you're not saved.
Not only that, but if you believe baptism saves,
you're basically believing
that you have to rely on man to save you,
because who baptizes you, God or man?
Man baptizes you.
You don't get baptized by God.
God's not going to physically come to baptize you.
No, you have to go to a man and be baptized.
So now you have to go to church to get baptized
or go to some preacher,
and basically you have to go to them for salvation.
That's not biblical.
The word is naive.
You don't have to go get it.
The word is naive even in thy mouth and in my heart.
That is the word of faith which we preach,
that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus
and shalt believe in thy heart that God was raised unto them,
thou shalt be saved.
But here's the key thing.
Go to Romans 4-5.
Here's what I say to those who say that baptism saves.
If baptism saves you,
if you have to be baptized to be saved,
then how did people get saved for 4,222 years,
approximately, give or take,
before Jesus Christ died on the cross?
How did people get saved for 4,222 years, approximately,
or 4,250 years, or however many years
between the time of the creation
until the time of John the Baptist?
Because guess what?
John the Baptist is the first baptism
where you see a guy baptizing somebody in the water
in the whole Bible.
John the Baptist.
So what about the 4,000-some years
before John the Baptist came along?
How did people get saved?
I was out knocking doors.
I was out fixing the gospel.
I knocked on the door of a deacon
of the Church of Christ.
This guy was the deacon of the Church,
which is basically just second only to the pastor.
I mean, you got the pastor, and then you got the deacons.
So this guy is a leader of the Church of Christ.
And I knocked on his door, and he said,
you have to believe and be baptized to be saved.
And I said, so what if the person believes
and it doesn't get baptized?
He said, they're not saved.
You have to be baptized also.
And I said, so how did people get saved
for over 4,000 years before John the Baptist?
How did they get saved?
And he just looked at me and said, I don't know.
Now, you're the deacon of the Church of Christ, okay?
You're a leader here, and you don't even know
how people got saved for two-thirds of human history.
You just have no idea.
All I know is you got to get baptized to be saved.
Okay, so what about 4,000-some years of people?
How did they get saved?
Or are they just all in heaven?
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, you know.
The Bible says that those people
would all be in the kingdom of heaven.
So how'd they get there?
Did they get baptized?
No.
And then he said, well, I don't know,
but I know that now you have to get baptized.
Yeah, that doesn't make any sense.
Can you get grandfathered in?
I mean, where's the cut off?
Well, the Bible tells us right here
in Romans chapter four, verse five.
It says this, but to him that worketh not,
but believeth.
So is this guy doing any works?
It says here he doesn't work.
But believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness.
But watch verse six.
Even as David also describeth
the blessedness of the man
unto whom God impudeth righteousness
without works.
He's quoting the book of Psalms,
saying blessed are they
whose iniquities are forgiven
and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord
will not impute sin.
And we could read the whole chapter.
Let's read the next verse, too.
Comment this blessedness then
upon the circumcision only
or upon the uncircumcision also.
For we say that faith was reckoned
to Abraham for righteousness.
How was it then reckoned?
We could go on and on.
But you see here,
faith was imputed unto Abraham
for righteousness.
And the Bible says that both David and Abraham
described the blessedness of the man
to whom God imputes righteousness
without works
and forgives iniquities without works,
covers sin without works,
just through faith.
So if Abraham was saved just by faith,
if David was saved just by faith,
if Paul is telling us today
and he's telling the Romans,
hey, we're just saved by faith, not by works,
then where is baptism in all of this?
I don't see Abraham getting baptized.
I don't see David getting baptized.
And it doesn't make any sense.
Also, if baptism is how you get saved,
why did Jesus get baptized?
Did Jesus need to be saved?
Did Jesus have any saves?
No.
And so baptism doesn't save you from your sins
because Jesus didn't have any saves.
Jesus Christ got baptized
in obedience to the Father
just as we get baptized in obedience.
But it's not what saves us.
You see, baptism is a picture
of the gospel.
But baptism is not the gospel.
Go to 1 Corinthians 1.
I'll prove that to you.
Baptism is a picture of the gospel.
But baptism is not the gospel.
You say, well, how does baptism
picture the gospel?
Because baptism pictures the death,
burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
You know, when he's standing up in the water,
that's a picture of Jesus
when he was on the cross.
When you go down into the water,
it's a picture of when he was buried.
And when you come up out of the water,
it's a picture of the resurrection.
So baptism pictures the gospel.
It pictures salvation.
It pictures your spirit being regenerated.
But is baptism the gospel?
No.
It only is a picture of the gospel.
It's sort of like when we take
the Lord's Supper or communion
and we have a little cracker
and the juice.
You know, that cracker
or that unleavened brick,
it represents the broken body of Jesus.
But is it the broken body of Jesus?
No.
I mean, if you ask the Catholics,
they'll say, yeah, you know,
you're eating the body of Jesus.
You're drinking his blood.
And that is cannibalism in the Bible.
By the way, the Bible commands
you never to eat blood.
Never.
You'll never eat blood
in all your generations.
It's an abomination.
No blood tacos when you go down to Mexico.
So they think it is.
This is the body of Christ.
No, it represents the body.
Well, baptism is the same way.
It's not the gospel.
It only represents the God.
It pictures what saves you,
but itself doesn't save you.
Because a person can get baptized
and they're still not saved.
If they don't believe in Christ,
they can get baptized a hundred times.
They're not saved.
And a person believes in Christ
but doesn't get baptized,
sort of like the thief on the cross
who just looked at Jesus and said,
Lord, remember me when
thou comest thy kingdom.
Jesus said, today shalt thou be
with me in paradise.
Okay?
He believed.
That was enough.
He called upon him.
That was enough.
Let me prove to you
that baptism is not the gospel.
Look at 1 Corinthians 1, verse 14.
I thank God that I baptized none of you
but Crispus and Gaius,
lest any should say
that I had baptized in my own name.
I baptized also the household of Stephanus.
Besides, I know not whether I baptized any.
So he's basically saying,
I'm thinking back as hard as I can
and the only people I can think of
that I've ever baptized
was Crispus, Gaius,
and the household of Stephanus.
He's saying, that's who I baptized
that I can think of as I'm God.
He said, I know not,
besides, I know not whether
I baptized any other.
He said, you know,
that's all I can think of
that I baptized.
Look what he says.
For Christ sent me not to baptize
but to preach the gospel.
Now, it looks to me like the gospel
and being baptized are two different things
because he says here,
Christ did not send me to baptize.
But rather, he sent me to preach the gospel
not with the wisdom of words
lest the cross of Christ
should be made of none effect.
Now, if baptism saves,
why is he saying,
well, I'm glad that I didn't baptize people?
And how is he saying,
well, I preached the gospel
but I didn't baptize?
Well, if the gospel is
that you have to be baptized to be saved,
you couldn't really do one
without the other.
You know, you couldn't really preach
the gospel to people
and get people saved
unless you're baptized.
Because that's how they would get saved
according to this false doctrine.
So clearly, baptism is a picture of salvation.
No question.
But is baptism salvation?
No.
Now, here's the thing.
Go to Acts, chapter 10.
Acts, chapter number 10.
Whenever you're dealing with a false doctrine,
whenever you're dealing with a false doctrine,
it's usually based on one or two verses
that are taken out of context.
And basically, in the Bible,
you'll have hundreds of clear verses
just saying one thing.
Believe, believe, believe, believe,
faith, faith, faith, faith, faith, faith,
turn away, turn away,
faith, faith, faith, faith,
believe, believe.
You know, it's just really clear.
Clear, clear, clear.
And then you'll have one verse
that seems to be saying something different.
And you know, sometimes you look at it
and it can confuse you.
And you say, I don't get this.
This seems to,
this almost makes it sound like, you know,
you need to be baptized to be saved.
Or this verse almost,
now, let me ask you this.
Just using a logical mind here,
which one do you think you're wrong about?
You know, if you've got a hundred
that are clearly telling you
it's believed to be saved,
and then you've got one
that makes it sound like
you have to be baptized,
you know, do you think
you're misinterpreting
all of these hundred verses?
You're wrong on all of them.
Or do you think maybe
you just misinterpreted
one verse from you?
You know what I mean?
And it's pretty obvious
what the answer to that question is.
Now, the Pentecostals,
their favorite chapter is Acts 2, right?
I told you that.
But I forgot to tell you
their favorite verse in Acts 2,
which is Acts 2.38.
And I've even seen a Pentecostal church.
I was driving down the road,
and it's called
Acts 2.38 Pentecostal Church.
That was the name of the church, okay?
So they really like this verse.
This is their big verse, okay?
But first look at Acts 10.
I want to show you Acts 10 first
in verse 43.
Now, this is another verse
going back to the Old Testament prophets.
It says,
All the prophets witness
that through His name
whosoever believeth in Him
shall receive the remission of sin.
So the Bible's telling us
in Acts 10.43
that all of the Old Testament prophets
all basically were pointing
to the same thing
that believing in Jesus Christ
is going to get you
the remission of sins, right?
Now, that's clear.
Now, are all the Old Testament prophets
telling you you've got to get baptized?
Not even mentioned
until John the Baptist, okay?
So all the prophets are saying
that through His name,
whosoever, anybody He's saying
who believeth in Him,
shall receive a remission of sins.
Look at verse 44.
While Peter yet spake these words,
the Holy Ghost fell on all them
which heard the word,
and they of the circumcision
which believed were astonished,
as many as came with Peter,
because that on the Gentiles also
was poured out the gift
of the Holy Ghost,
for they heard them speak with tongues.
Now, and magnify God,
they didn't speak.
So are these people, you know,
having an epileptic fit?
Are they, you know,
boo, boo, boo, boo, boo?
Wow, they've got the Holy Ghost too.
You know, because they're
falling out of the chair
and rolling in the aisles
and talking nonsense.
No, get the story.
In Acts chapter 10,
they went unto a place
where they were all Italians, okay?
And Peter is preaching unto them,
and basically they begin to,
when they hear the word preach in their own,
you know, they're basically
hearing the word of God, okay,
in their own Italian language.
There's probably some kind of
translator there or whatever.
And then what happens is
the people that are with him from Judea,
they begin to hear them
speaking and glorifying God
in their own language.
And they are astonished at that.
And God performed this miracle
to show those that had come with Peter
that these people also believed
on Christ that they could hear that
in their own language
because they were skeptical
whether the Gentiles could really be saved
because they were mixed up on that doctrine.
They were confused about that,
which obviously the Gentiles
could always be saved.
Both Old and New Testament,
anybody could be saved
that called upon the name of the Lord.
I mean, that's clear.
But these people were mixed up on that,
so God's trying to show them this.
And it says in verse 47,
watch this,
Can any man forbid water that these
should not be baptized,
which have received the Holy Ghost
as well as he?
And he commanded them to be baptized
in the name of the Lord.
Then prayed they in the Terry certain days.
Let me ask you this.
Did these people get saved first?
Did they get the Holy Spirit
when they believed
or did they get the Holy Spirit
when they got baptized?
I mean, look at it.
They already had received the Holy Ghost
in verse 47, right?
And then he said,
hey, let's baptize them.
And then they got baptized.
So which came first?
Receiving the Holy Ghost
or getting baptized?
They received the Holy Ghost first.
Just when they heard the word,
while they still heard it,
they believed it and spoke out about it
and boom,
they already have the Holy Spirit.
Done.
And then he says,
hey, let's get them baptized, right?
Go back to Acts, chapter 8.
You'll see the same thing in verse 37
unless you're reading a false Bible.
Verse 37 won't even be there.
But if you've got the King James Bible,
it says in Acts, chapter 8, verse 37,
it says that Philip said,
and a guy just asked at the end of verse 36,
what doth hinder me to be baptized?
He said, hey, what's stopping me
from getting baptized
at the end of verse 36?
And in verse 37,
Philip said,
if thou believeth with all thine heart,
thou mayst.
And he answered and said,
I believe that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God.
And he commanded the chariot
to stand still
and they went down both into the water,
both Philip and the eunuch,
and he baptized him.
And when they were come up out of the water,
the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip
that the eunuch saw him no more
and he went on his way rejoicing.
So here we see clearly that
first you believe on him,
then you get baptized next.
Now, if you get saved,
you may get baptized,
but not everybody who gets saved
is going to get baptized.
Go back to Acts, chapter 2.
Acts, chapter 2,
this is the favorite verse.
I'm going to show you,
because I want to show you
the verses that they use
to derive this doctrine.
Because you say,
where did they get this,
Pastor Anderson?
You know, you're ranting through
all these verses that just say
if you just believe
and that it's not at works
and that it's faith alone
and that even David and Abraham
were saved by faith alone
and the Old Testament
and were saved by faith alone.
You know, where did they get this?
Well, here's where they get it from.
And, you know,
basically, like I said,
you know you got a false doctrine
when you got one verse
that seems to contradict a hundred,
you might want to revisit
the one verse
and see what it's really saying
and figure that the hundred,
you know, you probably are right about those
since they all say the same thing.
Okay.
Look at Acts, chapter 2, verse 37.
Now, before we get to verse 37,
back up to verse 21.
Okay, Acts 2, 21
clearly tells us how to be saved.
Okay.
It says in Acts 2, 21,
it shall come to pass
that whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved.
So that's salvation right there.
That's consistent with the Old Testament
all the way back to Genesis
when it says men began
to call upon the name of the Lord.
Abraham called upon the name of the Lord.
Isaac called upon the name of the Lord.
David called upon the name of the Lord.
And, you know,
there are literally,
I think I've preached a sermon
where I used about 50 verses
that just talked about
calling upon the name of the Lord
to be saved.
And, of course, the Bible says
how that shall they call on Him
and whom they've not believed.
So you call by faith.
And so he says right there
in Acts 2, 21,
it shall come to pass
that whosoever shall call
on the name of the Lord
shall be saved.
Done.
Now as we go down further,
as Peter finishes preaching this sermon,
and he's explaining to them
how they're the ones who killed Jesus,
you crucified Him,
you with wicked hands
have crucified Jesus.
Verse 37, when they heard this,
because look at the very end of verse 36,
ye have crucified the Lord in Christ.
So he's saying you crucified Him.
Verse 37, now when they heard this,
they were pricked in their heart.
You know, they feel really guilty about this.
They feel terrible.
We crucified the Lord Jesus Christ.
Man and brethren,
it says in verse 37,
they were pricked in their heart
and sent unto Peter
and to the rest of the apostles.
Man and brethren,
what shall we do?
What are they asking?
What should we do?
What do we do?
We've messed up.
What do we do?
Look at verse 38.
Then Peter said to them,
repent and be baptized,
every one of you,
in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins,
and ye shall receive the gift
of the Holy Ghost
for the promise is unto you
and unto your children
and to all that are far off
as many as the Lord our God shall call.
And then in verse 41, it says,
then they that gladly received this word
were baptized and the same day
were added unto them about 3,000 souls.
Okay, and then it says in verse 44,
all of the leaves were together
and had all face to common.
So we see here in verse 38,
it says, remember,
Acts 2, 38,
Pentecostal church.
Then Peter said to them,
repent and be baptized,
every one of you,
in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins.
Now, if you read that,
you might walk away thinking,
well, this is saying,
this is what people
will interpret this verse.
They'll say,
well, this is saying that
if I'm baptized in the name
of Jesus Christ,
that that is what's going
to give me the remission of sins.
Okay, that's basically
how they read that.
Like, well, if I get baptized,
then I'm going to get
the remission of sins
or have my sins forgiven.
Now, would that not contradict
what all the prophets have said,
according to Acts 10, 43,
that whosoever believe in them
shall receive remission of sins?
Now, this verse does not
explicitly say, you know,
if you get baptized,
that's what's going to cause you
to get the remission of sins.
It says,
be baptized to every one of you
in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins,
and simply this,
it's a misunderstanding
of the word for,
because the word for
is not saying here
in order that you might receive
the remission of sins.
The word for also means
because of.
For example,
what if I said
wanted for murder?
What does that mean?
If I said wanted for murder,
it's not saying,
hey, I would like to hire you
to perform a murder for me.
Okay?
It doesn't mean
wanted for murder,
you know, you know,
because I want you,
you know, you're going
to be murdered
or you're going to murder.
What it means is
you're wanted because of murder.
That's the reason why
you're wanted, okay?
And basically,
the Bible is saying here
that the reason that we get baptized
is for the remission of sins.
We get baptized
because of the remission of sins,
because that's what it represents.
That's what it has to do
with.
That's what it's a picture of.
The death, burial,
and resurrection of Christ
and like as Christ
was raised up from the dead.
The Bible says
if we be dead with Christ,
we shall also live with him.
You know,
we're buried with him
by baptism into his death.
It's a picture
and we are baptized
because of the remission of sins.
Now, you say,
well, I don't think
that's what for means
in that word,
but see,
if you're going to say
that that means,
well, be baptized
in order that you might
receive the remission of sin,
well, then you're just contradicting
the whole rest of the Bible.
So you have to just decide,
do you believe
that the whole Bible
is God's word
and that it contains
no contradictions?
Now, if you believe
that the Bible contains
contradictions,
then I don't even know
why you're in church.
I don't even know
why you believe the Bible.
I mean, it's filled
with mistakes and contradictions.
The Bible teaches clearly,
it says in Hebrews 11-3,
through faith we understand.
So the key to understanding
the Bible is first
you have to believe the Bible.
Now, I believe the Bible tonight.
I believe Acts 2-38,
but I also believe John 3-16.
I also believe John 3-18.
I also believe John 3-36
and in a multitude of verses.
Now, in order to believe
that baptism saves,
you know,
you can say,
well, I believe Acts 2-38,
but you're basically saying
you don't believe
100 verses that say
if you believe
and do no works,
you're still saved.
You know, like Romans 4-5.
If it's whosoever believeth
or not.
So you have to decide
do I believe all of the Bible
or am I just going to take
one verse,
put it on the sign of my church
and say this is all I believe,
Acts 2-38.
Well, you don't believe John 3-16.
But see, look,
I believe both
because I just believe
he's saying be baptized
because of,
be baptized for the remission
of sin.
You know,
and ye shall receive
the gift of the Holy Ghost.
See, again,
receiving the gift
of the Holy Ghost
is not a result
of being baptized.
Because in Acts 7-10,
what happened?
They received the Holy Ghost,
then they got baptized.
He's just saying
you will also receive
the gift of the Holy Ghost.
He's not saying
because you got baptized
or when you got baptized
and so forth.
So that's their other,
now here's the other
big verse of biggie,
Mark 16-15.
Because I'm just,
I want to show you
where they're coming from here.
You can see.
And really,
you know,
I've talked to hundreds
of people about this,
at least hundreds of people.
I've talked to hundreds
of people who say
you have to be baptized
to be saved.
And I have hundreds
of verses to show them
that say it's believed.
I got verses upon verses
and how many verses
do you want to see?
And they pretty much
got three verses
that they'll show you.
I mean,
in my experience,
they got about three of them.
They pretty much show you
1 Peter chapter 3.
They show you Acts chapter 2
and they show you Mark 16.
That's pretty much
the three verses
that they've got.
So we got hundreds
upon hundreds saying
it's believed.
And I mean,
we've got a guy saying,
what must I do to be saved?
Wouldn't that have been
a great time to say,
well, get baptized?
But no,
it's just believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved.
So we got hundreds of verses
saying it's just believed.
And then we've got
these three verses
that pretty much
I've seen them use
to try to say
you have to be baptized.
Acts 2.38,
I'm sorry,
it doesn't even mention
the word saved.
They didn't even say
what do we have to do
to be saved.
What should we do?
There's a lot of things
we should do.
We should get baptized.
We should go to church.
We should live a good life.
We should do this and that.
But what must we do
to be saved?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Here's the other verses
they'll use.
Mark 16, 16.
Let's read verse 15.
He says,
and he said of them,
go ye into all the world
and preach the gospel
to every preacher.
He that believeth
and is baptized
shall be saved.
But he that believeth not
shall be damned.
Now,
let me bring three volunteers
up here to illustrate this.
Brother Gary,
come on up here.
I'm just going to use
the guys that are closest
to the front here.
Richard and Richard,
come on up here.
Brother Gary
and the two Richards here.
Go ahead and stand over here,
Brother Gary.
Okay?
Go ahead and stand right here,
Richard McMurray.
Go ahead and stand right here,
Richard Miller.
Okay?
Now, I want to illustrate
this to you
because notice
what the verse says.
It says,
whosoever believeth
that is baptized
shall be saved.
Let me find it
so I can quote it right.
He that believeth
and is baptized
shall be saved.
But he that believeth not
first of all,
let me point out,
does it say that
you'll be damned
if you don't get baptized?
No.
It just says
you'll be damned
if you don't believe.
Okay?
Now,
person A
is going to represent
someone who believes
on the Lord Jesus Christ
and is baptized.
Okay?
This guy,
he's believed on Christ,
he's saved,
and he's been baptized,
he's been dunked
underwater.
Okay?
Now,
person B here,
this represents a guy
who believes
on the Lord Jesus Christ,
but he has not yet
been baptized.
Okay?
He's not baptized.
Now,
let me ask you this.
Who got baptized
sometime after you got saved?
There was a space
of months or years
between the time you got saved
and the time you got baptized.
Okay.
Me too.
And I believe that
you should get baptized
right away.
You know,
in a perfect world ideally,
like the Ethiopian eunuch,
hey,
let's pull over
and baptize you.
You know,
because he was
ordained to do that.
You know,
he baptized him.
Okay?
But,
you know,
a lot of people,
there's a gap
of time there.
They get saved,
and then maybe months
or years later,
they get baptized.
Okay?
So this guy
is saved and baptized.
This guy is
believing in Christ.
He's definitely saved.
He knows he's believing,
and he's saved,
but he's not baptized.
Okay.
This guy does not
believe in Jesus Christ at all.
Okay?
He's just not saved.
So we got three people.
Not saved,
saved,
not saved.
Okay.
Everybody got it?
Now,
which of these two people
do we believe
are going to heaven?
Which of these three people?
These two guys
are both going to heaven, right?
This guy's not going to heaven
because he doesn't believe
in Christ.
Okay?
So everybody got that?
Okay?
So these two guys are saved.
Now,
according to the Pentecostals,
which of these three guys
are going to heaven,
the ones who believe
in baptism and charity?
Just this guy.
These two other guys
are not going.
He's the only one that's going
because you've got to be baptized
to be saved
and let's use the Bible
to see which of these guys
are saved.
Now,
I'm going to pick one verse
and I'm going to let the
Pentecostals pick one verse.
Okay?
So I'm going to pick
John 3.16.
For God so loved the world
that He gave His only begotten Son
that whosoever believeth in Him
shall not perish
but have everlasting life.
Which of these two people
are saved
according to that verse?
These two guys are saved.
So it looks like I'm right.
It looks like the Pentecostals
are wrong.
Okay.
Well,
let's get their verse.
Let's go on to their verse.
Mark 16, 16.
Okay?
Now,
He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved
but he that believeth not
shall be damned.
Now,
who believes that that verse
is true?
Amen.
Right?
It's the word of God.
I believe it's true too
because you know what
that verse really says?
It just says that He's saved
and I believe that.
And you know what else it says?
It says that this guy is damned
and I believe that.
Okay?
Does everybody get this?
Mark 16, 16 is telling us
that this guy is saved.
Does it mention this guy?
It doesn't mention him.
It mentions him
and it mentions him
and it's a true statement.
It's a true word.
Now,
according to the Pentecostals,
Mark 16, 16 is saying
that, you know,
you have to be baptized to be saved.
Meaning that this guy is saved
and this guy isn't.
Well,
doesn't that contradict John 3, 16?
Which just said
all the guys on the stage here
that believe are saved?
Okay.
So do you see how my interpretation
of Mark 16, 16
fits in perfectly with John 3, 16?
And let me add my own statement
and this is not Bible
but let me make my own statement.
He that believeth
and standeth on his head
shall be saved.
Now, who believes that that's true?
That is true.
And I'm going to perform a headstand right now
and I'll still be saved.
Okay.
What if the Bible,
what if it said,
he that believeth
and drinks a glass of water
shall be saved.
Do I believe?
Did I drink a glass of water?
I'm saved.
Okay.
Now, is that saying that people
who don't drink a glass of water
are not saved?
No.
And you see how people
will twist something though
and they'll make you think
it's saying something
that it's not saying.
Okay.
There's no verse in the Bible.
You can't find a verse that'll say,
if you don't get baptized,
you're not saved.
But I can show you a ton of verses that say,
he that believeth not
is condemned already.
Here's one right here.
He that believeth not
shall be damned.
So you see,
according to John 3.16,
these two guys are saved,
he's not.
According to Mark 16.16,
he's saved,
doesn't even mention him
and he's not saved.
According to the Pentecostal,
they have a contradiction here
because they got John 3.16
saying that this guy is saved
and Mark 16.16,
according to them,
is saying that he's not saved.
Even though,
does the verse mention
somebody who believes
but is not baptized?
It doesn't even mention them.
Go ahead and have a seat,
gentlemen.
Thank you.
So, you know,
you can find a couple of verses
and I'll be honest with you,
as a child reading my Bible,
I got to Mark 16.16
and it kind of threw me for a loop.
You know,
I looked at that and said,
what in the world?
This makes it sound like
you have to be baptized
in order to be saved.
You know,
it kind of threw me off.
But I just said to myself,
you know,
I know that can't be true
because I just read
all the other prophets
telling me 500 times
that if I believe,
I'll be saved.
So I just didn't really
let it bother me.
Then later on,
as I looked at it more,
I said,
wait a minute.
This is not telling us
that a person who doesn't
get baptized isn't saved.
It's telling people to go out
and preach the gospel
and basically we see baptism.
That's what we see
as a sign that somebody is saved.
You know,
we can't see the heart.
We can see baptism, right?
That's,
we can look at somebody
and say,
oh,
that guy got baptized,
okay?
And that could be an indication
or a sign that they believe
in Christ
because it's their outward
confession of Christ.
I believe that Jesus
was died and buried
and risen again.
I'm getting baptized
to publicly show that.
That's us looking at it
from the outside.
We see that.
Just as James chapter 2
talks about us looking
at other people's works
and seeing their works,
okay?
We can't see their faith.
We can see their faith
by their works many times
and so forth.
And so,
let me get to one more.
I'm running out of time here.
I want to get to one last point.
I'm going to skip
some points at the end.
You know,
because I do have some material
here on the faith healing,
you know,
the slain and the spirit
and the healing lines
and the many hands
and the miracles
and the word of knowledge
and the, you know,
extra biblical revelation.
But I want to spend time
on just one more false doctrine
tonight at the
Pentecostal movement.
And that is what's called
the oneness doctrine
or the Jesus only doctrine.
Who's ever been confronted
with this?
Hey, you may have been
confronted with this
and you just didn't know it.
You'll run into people
and here's what
they'll say to you
and this is how,
this is a sign
that they're mixed up in this,
okay?
This is a sign
that you're dealing
with Pentecostals
who believe that you can
lose your salvation
and that you have to be
baptized to be saved, okay?
Here's a sign.
They'll ask you this question.
Now,
have you been baptized
in the name of Jesus
or were you baptized
in the name of the Father
and the Son and the Holy Ghost?
Who's ever been asked
that question before?
Yeah, see,
more hands are going up now.
Yeah, I've been asked
that question.
That's what this doctrine is
and let me tell you,
in turn if you would,
let's turn to
Matthew chapter 28,
first of all.
Matthew 28.
Now, again,
there are so many
different denominations
of Pentecostals,
I can't keep them
all straight, okay?
But this is a pretty
prevalent doctrine.
Not all Pentecostals
believe this,
but there are a lot
of Pentecostals
that I run into
who believe this sign.
This is something
that I run into
when I'm not talking
to people
and it seems like
increasingly lately,
more people have been
hitting me with this.
I don't know if this is
a doctrine that's spreading
but basically,
it's a false doctrine
that denies the Trinity.
They basically
deny the Trinity
and you say,
well, what's the Trinity
and let me teach you
biblically what
the Trinity means
and why we believe in it
and you say,
well, the word Trinity
is not in the Bible
but this word is
in the Bible,
three in one
and that's what
Trinity means,
three in one
and I believe that,
okay, and let me
expose this doctrine
to you because
it's very important
that we believe
in the Father,
the Son,
the only doctrine
or the oneness doctrine
is a false doctrine,
okay.
Let me show you,
first of all,
in Matthew 28,
verse number 17,
the Bible says,
and when they saw them,
they worshiped them
but some doubted.
Matthew 28, 18,
and Jesus came
and spake unto them,
saying,
All power is given
unto me in heaven
and in earth.
Go ye therefore
and teach all nations,
baptizing them
in the name of the Father
and of the Son
and of the Holy Ghost.
Now that seems
pretty clear to me.
That seems pretty simple
to me, right?
Baptizing in the name
of the Father,
the Son,
and the Holy Ghost
but this oneness,
this Pentecost moment,
this is what they'll say.
Well, if you got baptized
in the name of the
Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost,
you weren't even
really baptized.
And many of them
will even take it
a step further and say,
You're not even saved
because to be saved,
you've got to be baptized
in the name of Jesus only.
Only Jesus.
Now, isn't that kind of bizarre
that the Bible tells us
to do something
and then we go out and do it
and then someone tells us
that we're doing it wrong?
Because who's ever been here
when we baptize people?
Put up your hand.
You know, when we baptize people.
Yeah.
You know, because thank God
you're sitting at a church
where people actually get saved,
where we actually go out
and get people saved
and we baptize people
every chance we get.
And we baptize them
in the swimming pool
and dunk them under water, okay?
Just like they did in the Bible.
They didn't use the swimming pool
but they used a river
or a lake or whatever they had.
Okay.
So, have you noticed
that when we baptize people,
we say,
I baptize you, my brother,
in the name of the Father
and of the Son
and of the Holy Ghost.
Amen.
We baptize them
in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
This is why we do that.
Okay?
Because that's what God said to do.
He told us,
Go do this
in the name of the Father
and the Holy Ghost.
And they'll say,
No, that's wrong.
You must baptize
in the name of the Lord Jesus
because Act 238
says,
Be baptized, every one of you,
in the name of Jesus Christ.
Now, let me ask you something.
If you're baptized
in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost,
are you baptized
in the name of Jesus?
Yes.
Is it?
I mean, correct me if I'm wrong.
Isn't He the Son?
Okay, so wouldn't that include
the Lord Jesus?
So, does that mean...
So, did Peter just baptize
in the name of Jesus
but not the Father
and not the Holy Ghost?
Amen.
No, this is nonsense.
This is just crazy.
You say,
Why are you just spending time
on your sermon on this?
There are a lot of people
who believe this,
but the main reason
I'm not spending time on it, though,
is because I want to talk about
the root of where that comes from.
Because, yeah, that is crazy
to say,
Well, you're wrong
if you obey Matthew 28,
what Jesus said.
We should follow
what Peter did,
not what Jesus said.
Well, that doesn't make any sense.
I'm going to go with
what Jesus told us to do.
Then, just as an example,
I'm going to go with
what Jesus told us to do.
I'm going to go with
what Jesus told us to do.
I'm going to go with
what Jesus told us to do.
Then, just an example
of what someone did.
You know,
there were other people
in the Bible
who had two wives.
I'm not going to go
and have two wives,
because Jesus said
one wife.
Now,
was Peter wrong
to baptize
in the name of the Lord Jesus?
No.
But I'm just saying,
if there were a difference,
which there isn't,
but if there were a difference,
then I would go with
what Jesus clearly said
than just what someone did.
But there's not
a difference anyway,
because if you're baptized
in the name of the Lord Jesus,
guess what?
That's the name of the Son.
So there's no issue there.
We don't see an instance
of what Peter said
while he dunked him
under the wall.
He's just telling people,
hey, get baptized
in the name of the Lord Jesus,
the guy you just crucified.
Repent and be baptized
in the name of the Lord Jesus.
He's not saying,
you know,
so that's what I have to say
as I dunk you.
And if they didn't say
in the name of Jesus
when they dunked you,
you're not really baptized.
No.
It's in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Now let me tell you something.
These oneness,
if somebody asks you
that question,
beware.
You may just think,
oh, this isn't silly.
It doesn't even matter.
Well, you're right.
It is very silly.
I'll be the first one
to admit that, okay?
But the reason it matters
is because you're talking
to somebody who doesn't believe
in the Trinity,
because they actually believe
that the Trinity does not exist.
They believe that basically
there's just Jesus,
and he is the Father,
and he is the Holy Ghost,
and frankly,
this is a false doctrine.
That just isn't true.
Jesus is the Son.
Now, is Jesus God?
Yes, of course.
Amen.
Now, here's the doctrine
that we get to.
Go to John chapter 1.
John chapter 1.
And while you're in
John chapter 1,
I'm going to read for you
for the sake of time
from 1 John 5.7.
In 1 John 5.7,
the Bible says,
for there are three,
how many?
Three.
Three that bear record in heaven.
The Father, the Word,
and the Holy Ghost,
and watch this,
and these three are one.
Now, I believe that there are
three that are one.
You say,
well, that doesn't make any sense.
Okay, that's what the Bible says.
I believe it.
Whether my pea brain
can comprehend it fully or not
is not the point.
I believe that these three are one.
I believe that the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost
represent one God
in three parts there.
The Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost.
That's what I believe.
I don't believe in three gods.
The Bible clearly says
in 1 Timothy 2.5,
there is one God.
But the Bible's also clear
that there's the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
These three are one.
Now, there are two false doctrines.
False doctrine number one
is the Mormons of the Jehovah's Witnesses
who will say,
these three are not one.
Right?
They'll say that Jesus Christ
is a separate, created being.
Created by God.
Separate, not one.
So there's the one that says,
these three are not one.
That's the Mormons of Jehovah's Witnesses.
Then there's the Pentecostals that say,
this one is not three.
And guess what?
They're both wrong.
To say that there's not three
is a lie.
And to say that there's not one
is a lie.
It's three in one.
And I don't think that that's
really that complicated
of a doctrine to understand.
Now, let me make it in a way
where it might help you understand it
if you're trying to wrap your mind around this.
I am made of three parts,
the body, the soul, and the spirit.
Right?
But that all makes up one person.
We're not talking about
three different people up here.
We're not talking about
three different Stephen Andersons.
We're talking one Stephen Anderson.
A body, a soul, and a spirit.
All three parts making up one person.
Now, can the body and the soul be separated?
That's called dying.
Right?
As the body without the spirit is dead,
so faith without works is then also.
So, when my body dies,
my spirit departs the body.
So, are these two separate things?
Or are they the same?
Just a one, a oneness.
Body only.
I believe in body only.
I don't believe in the soul.
I don't believe in the spirit.
It's just body.
Well, that doesn't make sense
because when somebody dies,
there's a believer in Christ.
Their body is buried.
But is their soul buried?
No, their soul is in heaven.
Their spirit is in heaven.
And so, there's obviously
two separate things going on here.
Yea, three.
Because there's the soul, the spirit, and the body.
Part of that is in heaven.
Part of that is buried in the earth.
Would it be accurate to say
Stephen Anderson is buried in the earth?
If I were, yes.
Because that's where my body is
and that body represents Stephen Anderson.
I mean, it's not anyone else.
You know, my wife, I come and identify the body,
not to be morbid or anything,
but, you know, pull back the seat and say,
yes, this is my husband.
Okay?
That's me.
But it's not all of me.
It's just the body.
The soul and spirit are up in heaven.
Same thing with God.
God is in three.
Just like the three are one.
Spirit, soul, and body make up one person.
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost make up one God.
And there is even a separation that took place
where the Father is up in heaven, right?
The body's down here on earth.
Jesus Christ.
The Son was down here physically on this earth.
There was a time when Jesus Christ's soul was in hell.
His body was in the tomb.
The Father is up in heaven.
It's all the same person.
So if we can under...
I don't think anybody has a problem understanding
the separation of soul and body and spirit at death.
Everybody understand that?
So how can we not understand that God is made up
in a similar format of basically a Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost that make up one person?
Okay.
So, you know, again, we may not fully comprehend it,
but that's just because we're human
and God's on a different level than us.
But we still believe it, don't we?
Okay.
So let's look at some proof on this.
Let's see some proof that the Trinity is real.
First of all, we saw 1 John 5, 7.
These three are one.
Look at John 1, 1.
The Bible says,
in the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
Now, down in verse 14,
it says the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us,
and it tells us clearly that the Word is Jesus Christ.
So the Bible says,
in the beginning was the Word,
the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
Now, heresy number one over here,
the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses,
they say the Word was not God.
Heresy number two over here,
the Pentecostals say the Word was not with God.
It just was God.
Okay.
We believe that the Word was with God and was God.
Everybody getting this?
Okay.
Because it's the Trinity.
It's three in one.
Okay.
Let me give you just a ton of scriptures on this.
First of all,
defeating this heresy is pretty easy,
the one that says that Jesus is not God.
That's pretty easy.
Hebrews 1, 8,
put unto the Son he saved.
Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.
That's calling Jesus God.
Great is the mystery of God.
Verse 10 to 3, 16.
God was manifested in the flesh.
Okay.
The Word was God.
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
Jesus Christ said,
you know,
hey,
you know,
before Abraham was, I am.
You know,
he's basically calling himself by that name
that God called himself in the burning bush,
I am.
He's saying,
you know,
they said,
well, you're not even 50 years old,
and hast thou seen Abraham?
He says,
before Abraham was, I am.
We see in the Old Testament,
clearly where it says,
you know,
that in Bethlehem,
his goings forth were of old from everlasting.
Jesus Christ has always existed.
Hebrews 7, 3.
He had no beginning of days nor end of life.
Okay.
So I'm not going to spend a lot of time
proving to you that Jesus is God.
I've done all the sermons
where I show all the scriptures
that show that Jesus is God.
Not just the Son of God
as in a created being,
a separate being,
totally separate.
No.
He is God.
Thomas fell down before him
and said,
my Lord and my God.
And Jesus looked at him and said,
blessed art thou, Thomas,
because thou hast believed.
Okay.
But over here,
how do we defeat this doctrine that says,
well, there's no such thing as the Trinity,
because here's what they say.
Jesus is the Father.
Now,
Jesus Christ is the Son.
Okay.
There's the Father,
the Son,
and the Holy Ghost.
They're all one.
They're all God.
But there is still the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Just as the body and the soul
are not the same thing,
the Father and the Son
are not the same thing.
Let me prove it to you.
And don't turn to these
because I just want to blow through these.
Genesis 1.26 is the first place we see this.
The oneness,
this oneness Jesus only doctrine
goes out the window in Genesis 1.
I mean, you don't have to get that far reading
before you see that this isn't true.
Genesis 1.26 says,
and God said,
now,
is and God said,
is that singular or plural?
And God said.
Singular, right?
God said.
It doesn't say God's with an S, right?
It's just singular.
And God said,
let us make man in our image
after our likeness.
Now, is it us, our, our?
Is that singular or plural?
Plural.
Yeah, because you got the one,
you got the three and one.
Okay, because he's talking plural.
Let us make man in our image.
He says a little bit later in Genesis 11,
just 10 chapters later,
go to let us go down
and there confound their language
that they may not understand one another's speech.
Isaiah 6.8,
also I heard the voice of the Lord saying,
whom shall I send and who will go for us?
Then said I,
here am I, send me.
And so the Bible uses a plural.
There's another verse in Hosea
where he uses a plural about himself.
God said, let us make man in our image.
So that's clear.
But let me give you some New Testament verses
that prove,
basically these are verses
where we see all three parts of the Godhead,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost in one verse.
Now, we saw it in Matthew 28
where he said,
baptizing in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
We saw it in I John 5, 7.
Sit back and listen to these.
Bible verses that show all three members of the Godhead
in a single verse.
So if the oneness doctrine were true,
these verses wouldn't make any sense.
It says,
And Jesus, when he was baptized,
Matthew 3.16,
went up straightway out of the water,
and lo, the heavens were opened unto him,
and he saw the Spirit of God,
is now your Holy Spirit,
descending like a dove and lighting upon him,
and lo, a voice from heaven saying,
this is my beloved Son in whom I have well pleased.
So we see Jesus being baptized,
the Holy Ghost descending upon him,
and the Father saying,
this is my beloved Son.
So we see all three in that one passage.
Matthew 28, we already talked about.
Luke chapter 1, verse 35,
And the angel answered and said unto her,
The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,
and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee.
Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee
shall be called the Son of God.
So there we see the Holy Ghost,
the Highest, and his Son, Jesus Christ.
We see John 3.34,
For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God.
For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.
That's talking about Jesus Christ
being given the Holy Spirit by the Father.
Three distinct persons.
John 14.26,
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost,
whom the Father will send in my name,
he shall teach you of all things,
and bring all things to your remembrance
whatsoever I have said unto you.
John 14.26.
John 14.16,
And I will pray the Father,
and he shall give you another Comforter,
that he may abide with you forever,
even the Spirit of truth.
So we see Jesus saying that the Father
is going to send the Holy Ghost.
We see all three in one verse,
and all these verses I'm reading here.
Acts 2.32,
This Jesus hath God raised up,
whereof we all are witnesses,
therefore by the right hand of God,
exalted, and having received of the Father
the promise of the Holy Ghost,
he hath shed forth this which ye now see in here.
Romans 8.11,
But if the Spirit of him
that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you,
he that raised up Christ from the dead
shall also quicken your mortal bodies
by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
2 Corinthians 13.14,
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God,
and the communion of the Holy Ghost
be with you all. Amen.
Galatians 4.6,
And because ye are sons,
God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son
into your hearts,
crying out of the Father.
1 Peter 1.2,
Elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father
through sanctification of the Spirit
unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood
of Jesus Christ.
So right there we have the Father,
the Spirit, Jesus Christ.
I mean, this doctrine goes on and on and on
and on throughout the Bible.
So you're wrong to say Jesus is the Father.
There is no Father.
It's just Jesus is his own Father.
No, Jesus Christ is the Son.
There's the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
These three are one.
So saying that the Father does not exist
or that the Holy Ghost is just Jesus,
the Holy Ghost is not Jesus.
Except for that they're both God.
And you say, well, this is just a word game.
This is just a semantic.
Then why did God have so many verses
explaining it to us?
Why did I just read 20 verses
telling us about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost
if it doesn't matter?
Apparently it does matter
that these three are one.
And so beware of the doctrine
of attacking the Trinity.
Beware of those who say Jesus Christ is not God.
That's blasphemy.
That's denying the Lord.
Beware of those who say,
well, there is no Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
It's just Jesus only.
And if you're baptized in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost,
that's wrong.
It has to be Jesus only.
That's a false doctrine.
And so all that to say this,
there are many deceivers that are entered into the world.
And this doctrine is very prevalent.
We want to be able to reach people
and give them the Gospel and get them saved.
So you say, what do we do, Pastor Anderson?
Well, I'll tell you what.
When you run into people
who are mixed up in this kind of stuff,
whether they start hitting you with this,
have you been baptized in the name of Jesus only?
If they hit you with that,
if they start telling you,
oh, man, we're speaking in tongues,
and I'm filled with the Holy Ghost,
I'm filled with the Holy Ghost,
my broken tongues.
Or if they come to you and say,
you have to be baptized to be saved,
when you get these warning signs of tongues,
oneness, healing lines,
slain in the Spirit,
all this bedding and stuff,
it tells you one thing.
I'm dealing with a Pentecostal.
And it tells you another thing.
They don't believe in eternal life.
And so you say, should I prove to them,
the Trinity, should I prove to them
that tongues is just a foreign language?
You know what?
If you try to prove to them,
they probably won't understand it anyway.
You know what I would focus on?
The Gospel.
And that's why whenever I run into
one of these Pentecostals,
and they want to talk about tongues,
and they want to talk about
being baptized in the name of Jesus,
and they want to talk about being healed
and all this stuff,
what I do is I just say to them,
you know what?
I ask them,
what do you believe a person has to do to be saved?
Because I just want to get to the heart of the problem.
What do you believe a person has to do to be saved?
And do you believe you can lose your salvation?
Because if I can get them to believe that,
and I've had somebody come up to me
and hit me with all this tongue-talking stuff,
and I didn't go into it with them.
Instead, I went into it,
I said, you know what?
Let's get back to that.
I said, let's talk about the Gospel.
Let's talk about what it takes to be saved.
And of course they believed,
you know, you have to do something
other than believe,
and that you could lose your salvation.
And once I was able to show them
the Gospel from the Bible,
and show them that salvation is eternal,
and then they got saved and believed that
and asked Jesus Christ to save them,
because I proved to them from the Bible,
you're not saved,
you're trusting yourself and not Jesus,
because you think it's by works.
Once they got saved,
it took about 10 seconds
to get them off this other crazy stuff.
Because the reason that they're all mixed up on this stuff
is because they're not saved.
And people who aren't saved are confused.
Because they don't have the Spirit of God leading them.
And they don't have an understanding of the Bible.
Because you've got to be saved to understand the Bible.
And so focus on the Gospel.
But when somebody is hitting you with this stuff,
it's just a sign that they're not saved
when they're hitting you with these doctrines.
And so take them back to the Gospel.
Take them back to eternal life.
Take them to 1 John 5.
Take them to the book of John
and show them it's by faith.
And just beware of these doctrines.
Because you know what?
I've seen people get mixed up
when they get hit with this stuff.
You know, they start getting mixed up on the Trinity.
They start getting mixed up.
You know, we need to be firm on what we believe.
And that's why I preach a sermon like this on a Sunday night.
To make sure you're firm on what you believe
and why you believe it.
You know, and we need this kind of preaching
to really solidify us and ground us in the faith.
So that we're not tossed to and fro
with every wind of doctrine that's out there.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, thank you so much for your Word, dear God.
And thank you for the clarity.
And Father, as you said in 2 Peter 3,
there are some things in the Bible
that are hard to be understood.
There are tough verses and tough doctrines.
And Father, help us to study
to show ourselves approved unto you.
And please just help us to beware
of these false doctrines that could creep in.
And Father, help us to love the Pentecostal
and try to give him the Gospel
and try to give him the truth on everlasting life
and eternal life.
So that he might be saved
and know the truth on these things.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.